You may have noticed my blog hasn’t been in the healthiest state lately. I exceeded my monthly bandwidth limit, which in my initial panic meant “oh shit oh god oh golly I’ve been DDoS’d”. Turns out I was just too popular for my own good. I contacted my hosts asking what it would take to get my website back online for the month. They promptly replied with $115. For the rest of this month. So thanks wpwebhost (visit now if you want to be horribly ripped off but at least have decent customer service!) for all your hard work, but I hiked my blog off to another hosting service. Fucking arduous process if there ever was one, but everything seems to be back working again.

Now allow me to make this the shortest return back to blogging since Epic Win Anime Blog and announce a hiatus. I’m on the final stretch of my final year at university, with my dissertation due in on the 10th May. So don’t expect any posts between now and then. I might do a monthly roundup, if only because I haven’t missed the past 21 monthly roundups and I’d hate to break the tradition, but don’t bank on it. I’ll catch up swiftly with Space Bros episodics when I come back. Hopefully. Cheers to more than one person who offered their blog as a platform for me to write when mine was down. It’s nice to know I have all these digital couches I can crash on in the blogosphere.

In the meantime, I was on some of the latest Bakacasts over at Project Haruhi, so you can go give them a listen. You can also visit the Aniblog Tourney for other anime blogs that aren’t quite as good as mine, with the possible exception of Ogiue Maniax for whom I have a raging stiffy for.…errr, don’ tell him I said that.

Now there’s a blog title you never thought you’d see.

This is sort of a general status update, because three things have popped up at once so I can’t really use my usual tactic of sticking them into the start of episodic posts.

First, I appeared on the Bakacast podcast a few days ago, except they’re lazy they haven’t finished the gigantic task of editing the podcast so haven’t put it up yet. In fact, I’ll be a regular on their podcast this year (or at least, they told me I would be) so have a listen if you want to hear my smexy Irish accent.

Secondly, this happens to be Movember, and I have happily joined in with growing myself a ridiculous looking moustache. You’re meant to raise money for prostate cancer by growing a moustache throughout the month of November, but I’ve been growing the moustache without the fund raising. At least I was, but halfway through the month, due to the unfortunate placing of certain scars on my upper lip from my days of getting kicked in the face playing football, I look like a sex offender. But instead of shaving it off in shame, I thought I’d keep it there and actually raise some money for charity. Problem is, I have no friends, so instead I’m trying to get some donations off my blog readers. It might be a mistake to try squeezing money from anime fans, but it’s worth a shot. If I raise at least $20 before the end of the month, I’ll post a picture of hideous looking facial hair (for reference, this is me without facial hair). Hopefully by then it will have grown into something commendable and won’t make me look like a sex offender.

::Edit:: The donations are closed. Want to see the resulting moustache?

>My final point of interest this year is the 12 Day of Christmas anime blogging project. The call to arms for this project used to be done by Canon-chan, but his blog is dead. However, from poking about on twitter a bit, there’s still a fair amount of interest with bloggers in doing it. For those who don’t know, the 12 Days of Christmas anime blogging thing is where anime bloggers recount 12 moments related to anime they watched this year that stood out to them. It doesn’t need to be something that aired this year. It doesn’t even need to be something you watched, so long as it’s something related to anime that happened to you this year. 12 posts, from the 14th to the 25th of December. I’ll be doing it, as I’ve done for the past 2 years, and I know a few others who will be doing it too. I feel a touch big headed assuming control of the project, which is why I’m instead sticking this note into the end of a post about moustaches.

As regular as the rise of the sun, the turn of the tide, and the creation of shitty Shakugan no Shana clones, here’s your boring old status update post.

Blogging plans this season, as outlined in my Future Diary post, comes down to a three-way race between Guilty Crown, Last Exile and Future Diary. I don’t like covering more than 2 anime a season. I gives me very little breathing space and falling behind on one series causes everything to start piling up. But hey, if I can’t choose between the three, then I’ll go for it.

In other dull me related news, my poor laptop died on me. It’s in for repairs, but the harddrive is almost certainly lost forever. Most of my data is backed up, but there is the minor issue of the terribad video I was halfway through working on. You know the way when you’re playing a computer game and it crashes when you haven’t saved in a few hours? You know how the frustration is so large that it’s incredibly difficult to work back the enthusiasm to play up to that point again? That’s where I am with that terribad video. That’s why there hasn’t been a new one in a while. I’m hoping the hard drive is recoverable so I can get those files back. Otherwise I guess I’ll have to suck it up and make a new one.

And…err, that’s really about it. Hope you guiz like mai bloggu~

OK, I’ve done this trick before, but I have the rose outlines layer in photoshop already, so I might as well use it whenever I can.

Short status update post this time.

I’m going on holiday for half of July and most of September. That doesn’t mean the blog will go on hiatus or anything. I can stock up posts to go up while I’m away, and post during the brief intervals I’m back at a laptop before I go world wandering again. But it does mean the blog will be in go slow mode for this season, so I’d say about 3 posts per week instead of the usual 4–5.

Episodic blogging is also rather difficult. I can probably spare an hour or so a week during my holidays to catch up on whatever the latest episode of Steins;Gate is, but blogging a second show this season is beyond me. So no blogging  No.6 or PenguinDrum for me this season. Which is a shame because blogging No.6 in particular would have been quite fun.

A girl just asked me to have sex with her. Straight faced, no joke, deadly serious. I’m not sure if I want to, maybe we should talk about it fi–holy shit was that the voice of the guy who held my hand once!?! Must abandon pussy in the search of his warm body. His oh so warm hand in my hand. His thick, throbbing etc.

About 17 months ago, I made a post about the two-year death many anime blogs fall prey to. The post has been continuously misquoted around the blogosphere by people who thought it was a proclamation of the death of anime blogging in general, when really it was just to show how many anime blogs don’t reach the 3 year mark. Those that do pass that birthday often do so in a state of semi-hibernation, only counting as alive because they average a post per month. It’s those blogs that manage to continuously update right until their 3 year birthday that have proven themselves to be in this for the long run and it takes far more for them to ever fall out of this routine. Enough significant life changes have occurred over the 3 years, showing that blogging was not just a fair-weather hobby when they had time.

I’ve finally reached my three year anniversary. I’ve proved to myself that I’m in this for the long run.

While I’ve had the occasional brief hiatus of perhaps 7–10 days when exams and deadlines loomed, the only significant hiatus I’ve ever taken was during the summer of 2009 when I had my final exams for High School (not that they’re called Final Exams or High School in Ireland, but I might as well put the words into internationally understandable lingo). In these past 3 years, I’ve moved house, moved country, changed my circle of friends, changed my education level tier, and generally had a whole load of crazy life changes. It’s not like the fire of passion continuously burned throughout those 3 years to keep me posting. There’s the occasional bout of ‘why the hell do I blog anyway’ syndrome that crops up a few times per year. But I keep posting through this anyway, because I’m not going to overcome my melancholy by doing nothing. I force myself to write even when I don’t want to, because I know that I really do enjoy writing and that will come only back to me through writing.

I’m not special. I like to pretend I have a big opinion of myself, but the reality is I’m amazed so many people consider my stuff worth reading. I’m only 20 years old. I started watching anime mid-2007 so I don’t have a particularly vast knowledge of the medium. I’d watched less than 100 titles when I’d started blogging. I put the effort in to be funny and entertaining, along with attempting to post regularly, but it does rather surprise me how so many people turn up to read these posts. Thank you for making me feel like this stuff is worth writing. That includes you, the 95% of you that simply lurk and never post a comment. Whether you’re here specifically to disagree with me, I hope I’ve provided you with something suitably rage worthy. Whether you’re here to find new anime to watch, I hope my endless dropping at hints to watch Code Geass/Fireball/Roujin Z/Black Heaven/Code Geass/Berserk/Mushishi/Code Geass eventually spurned you on to try one of those out and enjoy it. I hope I’ve kept you amused at work or in class as you tried to stifle a muffled laugh while reading a season preview. I hope, through whatever methods you see fit, that you have found something worth reading here.

Most of all, I hope I’ve entertained you. If I’ve managed that, I’ve achieved all I ever wanted to achieve.

First impressions are over. Oh sure, there’s still Deadman Wonderland, Blue Exorcist and Moshidora to write about, but I’m bored of first impression posts now. So on with my obligatory seasonal status update post, in which I actually have interesting stuff to say in for once.

Blogging Plans

Blogging plans for this season are finalised and ready to go. I’m going to be covering Steins;Gate, Fireball Charming and [C]. Before the season started, I said I only planned on covering 2 shows per season, but my empress Drossel called out to me and Fireball only has 2 minute long episodes anyway, so that’s not much hassle to cover. Admittedly the two shows I’m covering, [C]  and Steins;Gate, are the two anime this season that have the biggest chances of self-destructing in spectacular fashion, but hopefully that will make it still fun to blog. That said, I would much prefer these anime to deliver for a change. I don’t want another Fractale or Magical Flying Panther on my hands. Still, it’s turned out to be a high quality season, even if the mecha genre is only noticeable again by its absence. Ah well, the final 2 Break Blade movies are coming out 27th May and 22nd of July so that should keep me going until Sunrise release their highly original new anime this summer. It has a fancy male character who forms a contract with a mystical girl to gain magical powers. Oh, and there’s rollerblading mecha.

Movies

My knowledge of movies is painfully lacking. I love them, but I just never got into the natural groove of watching them when they came on TV or going to the cinema to see them, except for social occasions. So I decided I was going to correct this and watch as many of the bloody things as I could over the next year. I’m going to be chronicling my journey too: Scamp watches stuff that’s not cartoons. It’s nowhere near as in depth or as carefully calculated as my posts on anime will be. This is mainly a personal thing to keep track of what I’ve learned. But if you can’t get enough of me or something, then by all means check it out. There’s a few short reviews up already.

London Expo

I’m going to London Expo wooh! My first time ever at a convention. Well, apart from that one convention I went to, saw a bunch of people playing Blaze Blue, setting out a twister mat and no sign of anime whatsoever, which I promptly left after 10 minutes. But yep, I’m going to be at the UK’s biggest convention, probably on Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th. I’m not going to be running a panel or anything like that, but I’d love to meet some folk I know from online there. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do at a convention for 2 days by myself. Also if you have a spare bed, I can cook for you. OK, just took a look at the hotel prices. Suddenly I’m no longer joking with that line, a place to sleep would be hugely appreciated.

Podcasting

No, I won’t be podcasting myself. Instead, I’m going to be making some super exciting guest appearances on some other anime podcasts over the next week or two. I’m appearing on the Bakacast at Project Haruhi and the Metaverse at Metanorn. At least, they said I would be. Unless my tongue falls out or they suddenly decide they don’t like me, both of which would be rather embarrassing. Do go listen to them when I’m on to listen to my smexy Irish accent.

1 Year Later

The Aniblog Tourney started exactly one year ago. The dust has long since settled on that tourney, but anime blogs are obviously still ongoing. To see how these blogs are still doing, I posted up a list on the tourney site detailing each blog that entered the tourney and whether they are still updating regularly today. Basically, most of the anime blogs are still alive and well, albeit plenty of them have moved about or changed owners or blogging styles and whatnot, with plenty of newcomers to fill the gaps vacated by the deceased.

Man, don’t you guys just love reading Status Updates? What, really? Well tough, you’re getting one anyway.

The two series I’m blogging this season are Fractale and Bakuman, both ending in the spring. There’s also Rainbow Gate, which even I’m not sure what the plans are going to be for that. Take it as whenever I get bored, it gets cut off. Theoretically I could be writing about it right through to the end. What’s more likely is I won’t even bother writing about episode 3. Fun as it is, there’s only so much I can get out of mocking Rainbow Gate. Plus I really wanted to only cover two anime this season. I don’t want to drop Bakuman part of the way through, especially now they’ve dropped the crap character. That means I’m only left with one option from this season. With this winter season being pretty darn good as far as winter seasons go, I don’t want my choice wasted on bloody Rainbow Gate.

In other posting news, I really need to cut down a bit on blogging. Not that I’m growing tired of it. It’s just writing 6 posts per week is pretty damn draining and both effects the quality of the posts and eats into time I’m supposed to be working on my degree. Although I’m sure there’s many bloggers out there shocked that the idea of writing 4–5 posts per week is ‘cutting down’. I’ve got a massive bunch of posts ideas that haven’t had a chance to be posted due to the hectic Christmas and new seasons posting period, so now is my chance to finally get through them. Heck, it’s been 2 months since the last Retro Season Preview. I bet most people thought I’d abandoned that project.

As a final note, I’ve been having some problem with the spam filter lately so I might have stopped some legitimate comments coming through. Sorry to anyone who got caught by that. I wasn’t trying to silence the opposing voices. I’d tell you to leave a comment to inform me that your comments were being caught, but…yeah.…

I happen to be watching Revolutionary Girl Utena at the moment and I’m surprised, what will all the comparisons people make between it and Star Driver, that this piece of photoshopping hasn’t been done yet. Hence I decided to do it myself, in an attempt to liven up an otherwise dull status update post.

First impression season is as good as over now. The only one left is Kuragehime (Noitamina being fashionably late as usual). For the ones I haven’t covered, the only one I actually watched was Psychic Detective Yakumo, which I have nothing interesting to say about whatsoever. I’m not going to bother touching Fortune Arterial, Milky Holmes and Yosuga no Sora. They’re all VN adaptations. My first impressions post would simply consist of this

–_–

I was planning to go all out and blog as many anime this season as possible, but rather few of them ended up grabbing my attention. For now, I’ve settled on Bakuman, Ore no Imouto and Arakawa Under the Bridge. I don’t plan on blogging Kuragehime unless it leaps out of my laptop screen, grabs me by the collar and shakes me vigorously until I do so. That means my blogging plans for the rest of the year are sorted. I’ve got more than enough assorted posts planned to keep me going. More Retro Season Previews, updated Winter Chart, 12 Days of Christmas posts and plenty of other assorted bits and bobs that will keep the blog ticking over nicely for the next 3 months. Life is good~

On a totally unrelated not, there’s an Anime Movie Day during the Leeds International Movie Festival, which just so happens to be within walking distance of where I go to university. They’re showing a bunch of stuff, but the two I’m really interested in seeing are Redline and the European Premiere of Mardock Scramble. There’s screenings on the 19th Nov (Friday) and 21st Nov (Sunday). If I have any British readers, I would love to meet some of you there so do leave a comment if you plan on coming. I haven’t decided which day to go on yet but it’ll probably be the Friday. Now they’re still a long way away but last year I only heard about this thing two days before it started and the tickets were sold out by then so you might want to get your tickets early.

So just a warning in case the site goes quiet. lalala boring post. Here’s a picture to make it more interesting

Occult Academy was the one I chose before the season began and, by good luck, ended up being the only show I’m interested in blogging after the first episode anyway. Better yet, it only lasts one-cour so it fits in with my plans to go all-out next season. Hetalia World Series is…well, I outlined my problems with it in the last post. I think I’ll start posting my Hetalia posts in line with the Rumbel subs. This does mean I’ll be 2–3 episodes behind the rest of the world, but I don’t think that matters all that much with Hetalia anymore. It’s not like I’m competing for readers with anyone. Of course various things might happen, like Rumbel speed up their subs, die altogether, another half-decent group picks it up and so on, so I’ll play it as I see it. That’s it for episodic blogging. I should be able to finish ‘no anime is dropped forever’ before next season and the bulk of my content for the next 3 months will be editorial.

Also, Black Lagoon is awesome. You should feel bad about not having watched it yet.